Athletes have better access to their fanbases than ever before, either through social media or websites like the Players' Tribune that showcase an athlete's writing, editing, and/or video skills through first-person pieces.

Now, the players union for the most popular sport in this country wants to get in on the action, as the NFL Players Association on Monday announced that it's launching a new media company called Athlete Content & Entertainment (ACE Media) that will produce original content by those employed by the league.

Said the NFLPA in a statement: "With consumer demand for exclusive, high-quality sports-related content at an all-time high, ACE Media will begin by leveraging the NFL Players Association’s (NFLPA) exclusive group player rights and access to more than 1,800 active players to produce compelling sports-lifestyle content focused on athletes, whom fans would otherwise know solely through their statistics and game highlights."

Well, that's not entirely true since NFL players have produced their own content for the Players' Tribune, the Cauldron, Bleacher Report, and even here at the Daily Dot. But NFL fans can expect plenty of more NFL reading and video material that emanate from the fingertips of those who play. ACE Media also has future plans for scripted and unscripted TV series and audio programming.

“As professional athletes, we have a huge opportunity to offer unbelievable levels of access and authenticity to the fans that support us,” Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman said in a statement. “With the launch of ACE Media, we now have a way to seize that opportunity by creating content that no one else can, showing sides of ourselves that you won’t see anywhere else. We’re excited about the content we plan to help create, and we're excited by the future of this company.”

Broncos All-Pro linebacker Von Miller echoed via stateman: “We're all about being perfectionists on the field, but there is so much more to each of us when we are off of it. We’re multidimensional, with interesting ideas, pursuits and backgrounds. ACE Media will really be able to lift that curtain and bring some of those stories and ideas to life. Players have been asking for an outlet like this, and we’re excited to create some really cool content that will speak to multiple audiences in our personal voices.”

Already, ACE Media has formed partnerships with BET Networks, Bleacher Report, the Players' Tribune, and 120 Sports, and the company says, assuming the NFL players make this a successful enterprise, it could expand to include those who play baseball, basketball, soccer, and hockey.

Photo via Matt McGee/Flickr (CC BY ND 2.0)

The company chose to lower the yearly subscription price to $67 to commemorate last weekend's 67th annual Primetime Emmy awards show. There is a catch, however: The offer is only valid to new Prime subscribers. Never-before users can enjoy the $32 discount for one year's worth of service, after which, the price will return to its regular rate. The discount will only apply for this Friday, Sept. 25, beginning at 12:00 am ET until 11:59 pm PT.

Amazon's original series Transparent, a story about a Los Angeles father coming out as transgender to his family, raked in all five awards. Among them were outstanding comedy series, outstanding lead actor in a comedy series to Jeffrey Tambor, and outstanding directing for a comedy series to creator and director, Jill Soloway. With the Amazon Prime membership, subscribers will be able to watch the series at no charge.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Franta is already more than halfway to his goal of $180,000 in donations in just over a week of the campaign. Every $5 a fan donates toward the campaign earns them a chance at a "coffee date" with Franta, and at different levels they also earn prizes, like $25 for a signed postcards, or $75 for a custom water bottle.

Franta isn't the first YouTuber to turn a birthday into a charitable event. Each year fellow YouTuber Tyler Oakley raises funds for The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ suicide prevention charity. He's raised more than $1 million for the cause in three years.

"If you donate $25, that gives one person safe, clean, drinking water for the rest of their life," Franta said in a video. "There are almost five million of you. If each of you donated a dollar, think what could happen!" 

Franta's campaign runs until Oct. 12.

Photo via Connor Franta

Although Serial’s second season isn’t set for release until later this fall, and season 3 is set for spring, we may already know what one of them will be about.

Maxim reports that the hit podcast will cover the story of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held captive by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan for four years and 11 months. But after his return, he was charged with desertion and misbehaving before the enemy.

According to multiple sources, who spoke to Maxim“exclusively” under condition of anonymity, producers of Serial, including host Sarah Koenig, were spotted at Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Additionally, Maxim reportedly spoke with two former members of Bergdahl’s unit who claim to have been interviewed by Serial producers.

Zero Dark Thirty writer Mark Boal was also said to have been at the hearing with Koenig.

Bergdahl’s former unit members expressed doubt that Koenig would cover this story without bias, however. “Anyone who tries to benefit from Bowe’s situation has little interest in the truth,” one anonymous source told Maxim. “What happened in 2009 is both troubling and politically incorrect… my concern is that the truth is being diluted by those looking to gain from Bowe’s story.”

“I get it that Boal wants to make a movie and Serial is trying to make a nifty diorama for hipsters to marvel at,” another said, “but I think it’s the height of crassness for them to do this when it could potentially affect the legal proceedings… I assume it will be a great way to paint us as kooks and sore losers.”

When Maxim reached out for comment, Emily Condon, a producer for both Serial and This American Life responded:

"We'd very much appreciate if fellow journalists would give us some room and not feel the need to attempt to dig into and try to figure out what you think we might be doing, especially since we're actively reporting stories, and having a bunch of wild speculation out there makes our job reporting harder. Doesn't feel very menschy. In any case, here's what I can tell you: The Serial staff is currently working on several things simultaneously: Season 2, Season 3, and some other podcast projects. For now we're not talking publicly about anything that we're working on."

Serial garnered critical acclaim for its first season which examined in grave detail the case of Adnad Syed, the Baltimore teenager, now 35, who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae-Min Lee, in 1999. Koenig’s exhaustive investigation raised significant questions about the prosecution against Syed, who’s serving a life sentence. In August, Syed’s lawyers filed a motion in court showing that cell phone records that were integral to convicting the teenager may not be considered “reliable information” and could result in the court reopening the case. 

H/T Maxim | Photo via Casey Fiesler/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The Daily Dot is celebrating Woman Crush Wednesday, better known as #WCW on Twitter andInstagram, by highlighting female creators on YouTube whose work we admire.

There is something completely mesmerizing about watching Jemma Wilson, the baker behind Cupcake Jemma, magically transform a handful of ingredients into a world-class rainbow cake. Her hands seamlessly move from one recipe step to the next as a tower of color and sugar transforms into a frosted masterpiece before her.

In just over two years, Wilson’s channel has boosted cake-decorating tutorials and recipes achievable for everyone from the aspiring beginner baker to the seasoned veteran. Uploading a video a week, Wilson has used YouTube to build a personality around her bakery that has driven over 24 million views to her channel. And once you dive into her tutorial for the burger cake, prepare to fall down a sweet rabbit hole where emoji cookies, piñata cupcakes, donut shortbread cookies, and the classic, perfect soft chocolate chip cookie will have you planning a small dinner party just to try these out.

So, dear readers, should you ever find yourself in London, head Jemma’s way, thank her for making baking so entertaining, and then please send me a Batman cupcake!

Screengrab via CupcakeJemma/YouTube

Taylor Swift is one of the world’s most-beloved musical artists. So much so that this week her 2014 release 1989 got a complete alternative-rock makeover, courtesy of notoriously self-serious Ryan Adams.

But while the singer-songwriter’s take on "Bad Blood"received early praise, those who aren’t Adams fans would call his effort to remake Swift’s album in its entirety boring and repetitive after listening to all the songs in one go. 

And he's already late to the party. The Web has spent most of the last year revisiting Swift's massive album with wild covers. To help inject color back into your drab Swift sound trip, we’ve collected nine 1989 songs with much more dynamic cover versions. 

1) Danelle - "Welcome to New York"

This simple guitar-and-shaker cover exudes a beach vibe that'll make you wish it were still summer and you were by the pool, enjoying a frozen margarita.

 2) Hey Violet, Imagine Dragons, and Kelly Clarkson - "Blank Space"

This song has a lot of bold renditions on YouTube, including a mashup and this punk take by Hey Violet, both of which Swift herself was obsessed with.

3) Postmodern Jukebox and Emilie & Ogden - "Style"

As far as changing styles goes, remaking this one has got to be a fun feat for any musician out there. The artists behind this Grease-inspired cover nailed the makeover.

4) Anthem Lights - "Out of the Woods"

This version sung by American Christian group Anthem Lights lends this track the boy-band feel we didn’t think we wanted, plus a few spot-on harmonies we didn’t think we needed.

5) Meghan Trainor and Jesse Will - "Shake It Off"

For Lip Sync Battle fans, when we think of "Shake It Off," we immediately think of The Rock. If you’re looking for a slow, mellow version of the dance track, you might enjoy this cover by Meghan Trainor.

6) Alessia Cara - "Bad Blood"

The star-studded music video of this song is pretty darn memorable, so it would take a lot of effort to spin the track into something refreshing. Thanks to newcomer Alessia Cara—who debuted her single "Here"on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, after Fallon insisted on booking her for the show—we now have something amazing to enjoy.

7) Drew Tabor - "Wildest Dreams"

Most of Swift’s songs on 1989 are pretty good in their original forms, but in some cases, the unplugged versions of these tracks that float online are lovelier on the ears. Case in point: Drew Tabor’s walk-in-the-park rendition.

8) Vance Joy - "I Know Places"

One bullet-proof way of knowing a cover is worth listening to is if the person being covered endorses it. Vance Joy’s "I Know Places" is definitely up there among the Swift cover contenders—at one point it was even Swift’s ultimate fave:

9) Ingrid Michaelson - "Clean"

Thanks to Imogen Heap—who wrote and produced the track along with Swift—"Clean" features a dream-like tempo that is truly captivating. Ingrid Michaelson’s cover of the song, performed alone on the piano, made the track extra vulnerable.

Why is this annoying exactly? Well, for starters, the mass of these things indicates an implicit importance placed upon their “craft” and a desire—nay, requirement—that they document their enlightening passage.

But whether or not you believe the old studio mantra that actors are meat puppets and nothing but, you must admit that there is a stark disparity. Where are the films about failed masseurs or struggling, wannabe croupiers? What about news anchormen, that other great vocation where you read what others write, sit where you are told, and then hang around for plaudits? What about their hopefuls?

The issue is even inadvertently raised in the second episode, “We’re Best Friends.” As a training exercise at the acting class that the show’s cast all take, they are encouraged to call out descriptions of characters that they think the others should play. The activity is used as an excuse to call Michael Steger a terrorist—and in the callback, a gay terrorist—as well as a Bollywood dancer and a “future ex-husband.”

But does anyone shout out that he should play a wannabe actor? Tellingly, no. And why? Because it isn’t going to be funny, as it is the sort of role that he’ll actually end up playing.

So even with this as a known, in the planning stages for Not So Union, it was decided that this was going to be the setup for their comedy series. It’s an inherently unfunny scenario. Sure, great humor can be derived from even the most interminable situations, but Not So Union doesn’t have Beckett as a script doctor, and in an eight-minute webseries episode, you need all the help you can get. 

It’s a decision that immediately signifies the series as unoriginal and sends it straight back into the pack. And anyway, why exactly would you want to play something that you already are? Is that even acting? What if you’re bad at playing a struggling actor? Or even worse, are convincing at it? Maybe consider the gay terrorist route. At least then your series will stand out.

Screengrab via Not So Union/YouTube

Jimmy Fallon is taking the future of his Tonight Show empire into his own hands.

He, Steve Higgins, and the Roots take on Empire in their latest TV parody digital original, and the drama soon follows. Fallon, channeling Lucious Lyon, is looking for an heir to take over for him in case another injury takes him down. Higgins’s Cookie impression is a wonder to behold (along with his “This is an ass” moment) as Fallon’s crew fights for the job.

There are a couple of Empire cameos along the way, with Taraji P. Henson’s Cookie in particular making an impression both on the audience and on Higgins, whom she calls “Little Debbie” because he’s a “fake-ass Cookie.” Terrence Howard, however, isn’t amused.

Screengrab via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer are supposed to be atoning for their sins, but they’re spending Yom Kippur hungry and miserable.

With bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches by their bedside to consume the moment the sun sets, Jacobson and Glazer are trying to keep each other’s minds off of food by listing everything they’ve done wrong over the past year. But their fasting only lasts for so long.

Their logic, while twisted, makes some sense. If they don’t eat, they’ll have to throw the sandwiches away—and then atone for wasting food. They might as well put it to good use. Right?

BY TODD LONGWELL

In the wake of its five Emmywins, Amazon is announcing the lineup for its fall pilot season featuring contributions from such talent as Louis C.K., Diablo Cody (Juno), Sasha Baron Cohen, and Shaquille O’Neal. They will debut later this year exclusively on Amazon Video in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Austria.

As part of Amazon’s pilot program, the shows will be available to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Amazon will weigh the number of views and direct viewer feedback in determining which shows to greenlight to series. To date, only one show, the yet-to-be-titled project from director Woody Allen, has been picked up to series by Amazon without submitting to the pilot process.

The pilots include: 

Edge

Based on George G. Gilman’s best-selling book series of the same name, it stars Max Martini (Pacific Rim, Captain Phillips) as Josiah “Edge” Hedges, a Union officer turned cowboy, who prowls the post-Civil War American West doling out his own peculiar (and savage) brand of justice. It also stars Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) and Yvonne Strahovski (The Astronaut Wives Club, Chuck) as Beth. Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3) and Fred Dekker (Tales from the Crypt, Star Trek: Enterprise) wrote the script, as well as executive produced with Barry Josephson (Bones, Turn: Washington Spies), and David Greenblatt (Battle Los Angeles). Black directed.

Good Girls Revolt

Inspired by the landmark sexual discrimination cases chronicled in Lynn Povich’s book The Good Girls Revolt, it follows a group of young female researchers at News of the Week in 1969 who ask to be treated fairly and become unlikely revolutionaries, as their simple request upends marriages, careers, sex lives, love lives and friendships. It stars Genevieve Angelson (Backstrom) Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), Erin Darke (We Need to Talk About Kevin), Chris Diamantopoulos (Silicon Valley), Hunter Parrish (Weeds), Jim Belushi (According to Jim) Joy Bryant (Parenthood), and Grace Gummer as the late author, screenwriter, and director Nora Ephron. A co-production with TriStar Television, Good Girls Revolt was written and created by Dana Calvo (Made in Jersey), directed by Liza Johnson (Return), and executive produced by Calvo, Lynda Obst (Interstellar), Darlene Hunt (The Big C), Don Kurt (Justified) and Jeff Okin (Dark Skies, Stanley Park). The pilot is inspired by the landmark sexual discrimination cases chronicled in Lynn Povich’s book, The Good Girls Revolt.

Highston

Written by Oscar-nominee Bob Nelson (Nebraska), the pilot tells the story of Highston Liggetts (played by newcomer Lewis Pullman) a 19-year-old with a wide circle of celebrity friends that only he can see. His parents, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub (24) and Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live) force him to get psychiatric help, but his Uncle Billy (Curtis Armstrong) thinks he’s just fine. The pilot guest stars Shaquille O’Neal and Red Hot Chilis Pepper bassist Flea. It was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), and executive produced by Sacha Baron Cohen (The Dictator), Todd Hoffman (Love Stinks), Nelson, and Todd Schulman (Bruno).

One Mississippi

A dark comedy loosely inspired by the life of comedian Tig Notaro’s (Boyish Girl Interrupted) life, the pilot follows Tig as she deals with the complex reentry into her childhood hometown of Bay Saint Lucille, Mississippi, where she must deal with the unexpected death of her mother, as well as her own declining health. It also stars Noah Harpster (Transparent), John Rothman (The Devil Wears Prada) and Casey Wilson (Gone Girl). A co-production with FX Productions, it was written and executive produced by Notaro and Diablo Cody (Juno), executive produced by Louis C.K., Blair Breard (Louie), Dave Becky (Everybody Hates Chris) and Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said), the latter of whom also directed.

Read the full story at the Video Ink.

Remix by Max Fleishman

Classic Alice fans can put down the notepad—their favorite transmedia story is getting an upcoming app to help ease the burden for keeping up with its sprawling universe. 

The series follows a college student who lives her life according to classic novels, played out through vlog-style videos, various social media sites, and a podcast series. Transmedia—storytelling thrown at users across varying mediums—continues to evolve but often it's difficult for new viewers to engage wholly in the narrative experience.

"It's hard to catch up because there's this huge enormous train that sort of barrels through,"  Classic Alice's creator and star Kate Hackett told the Daily Dot. "It almost feels like we lose people because [they're] overwhelmed by it. Giving it to them in one place is great. Directing your audience to six different websites, good luck."

Enter the Horizon Factory, co-founded by Jay Bushman, the Emmy-winning transmedia producer of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. It's developing an app in conjunction with Classic Alice that will streamline the transmedia experience of shows in an easy-to-use mobile or tablet format.

"Every single thing that's ever happened on the show or around the show, absolutely everything we have will be on this app," said Hackett. "You can start from the very beginning, you can trace your way through the entire story."

The series is subdivided into books, and Hackett said she envisions the first book being a free option on the app, with additional books as in-app purchases. They're focused on getting the backlog of content up first, and catching up to the story in progress in time for the holiday season.

"Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we can do the whole bundle, so people can buy it as a gift," Hackett said.

Screengrab via Classic Alice/YouTube.

Good Burger began on the Nickelodeon series All That, so this reunion is a must-watch for fans of '90s Nick TV. It looks like Kenan and Kel had a lot of fun playing the familiar characters, riffing off of the idea that Fallon worked alongside Ed at Good Burger when he was a teen.

Screengrab via The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

If you couldn't explain that before now, it's really no biggie—unless you're one of the people Jimmy Kimmel tricked into pretending they thought the equinox is a dangerous natural phenomenon.

To celebrate the autumnal equinox on Wednesday, Kimmel sent out one of his correspondents to ask people if they were prepared for a "5.5-magnitude equinox." Obviously, this was total nonsense, but that didn't stop people from blithely explaining why you should dig a tunnel to escape the perils of an extra-strength equinox.

Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

More and more people are joining the ranks of “cord-cutters,” choosing to cancel their cable or satellite subscriptions and instead subsist on the nigh-endless supply of entertainment options from sources like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. One of the biggest reasons so many viewers were reluctant to cut those cords for so long was access to the premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime, which regularly provide some of the most buzzed-about TV programming around. Thankfully, there are new ways to see this content without having to pay a full cable or satellite subscription. You can rent or purchase shows like Game of Thrones digitally, of course, but much of HBO’s back catalog is available to Amazon Prime customers, and the newer stuff is available through the HBO Now service. Now those craving Showtime’s stable of series, including Homeland, Shameless, and Penny Dreadful, need look no further than Hulu.

Hulu recently launched Hulu with Showtime, which, for an extra monthly fee of $8.99 per month on top of your standard Hulu Plus subscription, gets you access to damn near everything in Showtime’s lineup—both current shows like those mentioned above and beloved older series like Weeds and Californication. We here at the Dot spent a few weeks diving deep into the service, and it definitely looks to be a worthwhile addition to any cord-cutter’s monthly lineup. Here’s some of the best of what you’ll get with Hulu with Showtime.

1) Homeland(2011–)

Based on a 2010 Israeli series, Homeland stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA counterterrorism operative struggling with bipolar disorder, and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a former Marine sniper who was held as a POW by al-Qaeda for years… and whom Carrie believes is now working for his former captors. As Brody receives a hero’s welcome and is taken under the wings of Washington power players, Carrie faces ridicule and potential career suicide as she attempts to prove Brody is not what he seems. The always-wonderful Mandy Patinkin plays Saul Berenson, Carrie’s mentor who’s worried she’s out of her gourd.

Homeland has taken home numerous awards since its 2011 premiere, including the 2012 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and Best Actor/Actress Golden Globes for both Danes and Lewis. The series is due for a major overhaul when it returns next month, skipping ahead two years and relocating Carrie to Berlin, where she will be working for a private security firm.

All four seasons of Homeland are available on Hulu with Showtime. Season 5 premieres Oct. 4 on Showtime.

2) Episodes (2011–)

Most of the core Friends cast have struggled to define their careers beyond the legacy of that classic hit sitcom. For Matt LeBlanc, who played the amiably dumb Joey Tribbiani, it turns out his best post-Friends role is playing himself. Episodes stars Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig as a British husband-and-wife writing/producing team whose critically acclaimed sitcom won them a BAFTA. Naturally, Hollywood wants to remake it, and Episodes follows their voyage to the States to watch the slow, methodical destruction of everything they held dear about their creation… epitomized in the casting of LeBlanc as the series lead.

Mangan’s Sean is soon won over by LeBlanc’s charm, but Greig’s Beverly is standoffish at best, and the love/hate/exasperation triangle only gets more complicated from there. Episodes was created by industry vets David Crane (Friends) and Jeffrey Klarik (Mad About You, Dream On), and it’s great fun watching LeBlanc parody himself. The series has earned LeBlanc several Emmy nominations over the years, as well as a Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe back in 2012.

All four seasons of Episodes are available on Hulu with Showtime. The series has been renewed for a fifth season, due to air sometime in 2016.

3) Shameless(2011–)

Based on a long-running, BAFTA-winning British series, Shameless spins tales of the Gallagher clan of Chicago. Patriarch Frank (William H. Macy) is an Olympic-level alcoholic whose hobbies include disappointing his children and squandering any family funds he can get his hands on. While Frank spends his days and nights pickled, it falls to eldest daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) to bring home the dollar-store bacon substitute and try to give her siblings the best life they can manage. The rest of the clan includes Lip (Jeremy Allen White), a once-promising high school graduate now disillusioned and self-destructive; Ian (Cameron Monaghan), closeted gay and maternal half-sibling to the rest of the Gallaghers; Debbie (Emma Kenney), good-hearted and forced to grow up too fast; the borderline psychopathic Carl (Ethan Cutkosky); and infant Liam. Developed for U.S. TV by industry vet John Wells (E.R., The West Wing), Shameless is a hilarious and all-too-real look at a family just trying to get by below the poverty line, with nothing to cling to but each other. The cast is uniformly great, but everything is anchored by Emmy Rossum’s fearless, sympathetic performance as Fiona.

Four seasons of Shameless are available on Hulu with Showtime. The series wrapped up its fifth season this past April and is due back for a sixth in 2016.

4) House of Lies (2012–)

Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle) is a ruthless management consultant for an equally cutthroat firm called Galweather-Stearn, and if he ever had a moral compass, the needle snapped off a long time ago. He heads up a team consisting of Jeannie van der Hooven (Kristen Bell), whip-smart and determined to succeed on her own terms; Clyde Oberholdt (Ben Schwartz), a born spin doctor and unabashedly arrogant prick; and Doug Guggenheim (Josh Lawson), an analyst who often seems too goofy and clueless to survive in Marty’s bloodthirsty bottom-line world. Under Marty’s morally flexible leadership, the team lies, cheats, and manipulates their way toward success at any cost, and sometimes the job is almost enough to distract them from what a shitshow their personal lives are.

House of Lies was created by Matthew Carnahan, who previously gave us the underrated Courteney Cox FX series Dirt, and it traffics in the the same bleak, amoral sense of humor and self-destructive characters who will leave viewers ricocheting back and forth between “love” and “love to hate.”

All four seasons of House of Lies are available on Hulu with Showtime. It has been renewed for a fifth season, set to air in 2016.

5) Masters of Sex(2013–)

Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan star as Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, better known to history as “Masters and Johnson.” The scientific duo pioneered the study of human boot-knockery for decades beginning in the 1950s, dispelling many longstanding misconceptions and providing crucial insights into female sexuality in particular. Masters of Sex tracks their research, their relationships, and the way their science affected the larger culture and helped kickstart the sexual revolution.

The series was developed by Michelle Ashford, who worked on the sadly short-lived Boomtown and the HBO miniseries The Pacific and John Adams. It’s landed numerous awards nominations over the course of its three seasons, including a Best Actress Emmy nom for Caplan last year. Human sexuality can be profound or silly, funny or phenomenal, and Masters of Sex embraces that marvelous spectrum in all its eccentricity, with a pair of wonderfully drawn characters and performances at its core.

All three seasons of Masters of Sex are available on Hulu with Showtime. The show has been renewed for a fourth season, due in 2016.

6) Ray Donovan (2013–)

Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) is a “fixer” for a powerful Los Angeles law firm. Think Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction, but he cleans up messes for Hollywood’s elite rather than for clumsy hit men who don’t know how to keep their fingers off the trigger. Need somebody bribed to forget they saw something, or to look one way when they should be looking the other? Ray Donovan is your man. Unfortunately, Ray can make everybody’s problems vanish but his own, and his (relatively) stable existence is thrown for a loop by the news that his lowlife father Mickey (Jon Voight) is being released from prison and right back into his life.

The series was created by Ann Biderman, who gave us the NBC/TNT cop drama Southland and won an Emmy for her writing on NYPD Blue back in the day. Both Voight and Schreiber have earned Emmy and Golden Globe noms for their roles in the show, and Voight actually took home the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe last year.

All three seasons of Ray Donovan are available on Hulu with Showtime. The show will return for a fourth season in 2016.

7) Penny Dreadful (2014–)

If you were a fan of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s brilliant League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels, and justifiably depressed by the abysmal movie adaptation, Penny Dreadful may be the closest we’ll get to a satisfying transition of Gentlemen to the screen. Like Moore and O’Neill’s comics, Penny Dreadful imagines a world where the heroes and villains of Victorian fantastical literature populate the same gaslit landscape: Dorian Gray, Mina Harker, Frankenstein and his Monster, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and Abraham Van Helsing, just to name a few. And with Harkers and Van Helsings in the mix, you know the immortal bloodsuckers are going to be lurking in the shadows…

Penny Dreadful was created by John Logan (Skyfall, Hugo) and the cast includes Eva Green, Timothy Dalton, Doctor Who’s Billie Piper, and Josh Hartnett. Honestly, this sort of stuff is my bread and butter, and Penny Dreadful is the main reason I’m springing for Hulu with Showtime.

Both seasons of Penny Dreadful are available on Hulu with Showtime. It will return for a third season in 2016.

The solid back catalog

Those seven current series more than make Hulu with Showtime worth the investment if you’ve bailed on cable, but that’s just scratching the surface. There’s plenty of Showtime back catalog to delve into as well, including full runs of shows like Dexter, The L Word, Nurse Jackie, Californication, Weeds, and—one of my personal favorites—Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Clear your schedules, people!

Illustration by Max Fleishman | Remix by Jason Reed

The singer posted to Instagram last night, asking fans to call the number that appears on the cover of her new album, Honeymoon. 

Some callers were met with a pre-recorded poem. Others actually got to talk to her, like this very happy fan, who claimed she called 16 times. 

Much of the past criticism of Del Rey has hinged on claims that she's an industry construct, that she's not authentic enough (or feminist enough). That her musings about death and depression are misguided. In her Pitchfork review of Honeymoon, Jessica Hopper considers the opening track and the California dream Del Rey has laid out for us: 

In the space of one lyric, she posits the invisible, real city running parallel to the gleaming, manufactured one, sketching an arterial map of a city coursing with ambition. It reminds us of something that was the very issue with Del Rey that irritated some early on—she knows exactly what she is doing. Honeymoon just synthesizes ideas she's been vamping on from the beginning into a unified work.

This hotline is a perhaps way to let fans experience the real Lana, however fleeting that experience might be. After 14 tries, I was no closer to knowing her, but that's sort of fitting. She's offering her version of the Hollywood "star" tours that offer us a look into a stranger's life, or at least a peek in their window. It's up to them to pull back the curtain. 

H/T Pitchfork | Screengrab via ZeldaMario24/YouTube

BY LARRY CARROLL

What do you get when you combine social media, Liam Hemsworth, and an adorable dog? A lot of likes.

The Hunger Games star has a serious love affair with his dog Tani. And when he posted a picture on Instagram making fun of his dog’s face this week, it received 43,000 likes in just two hours.

Utilizing the hashtags #Tani and #RescueDog, Hemsworth seems to be learning the ropes quickly after just joining Insta last month. Meanwhile, his brown-and-white pooch seems on her way to becoming a canine celebrity along the lines of Taylor Swift’s cat or Amanda Seyfried’s dog.

It wasn’t the first time that Tani has flexed his social media muscle. A previous post had the dog sticking her head out a car window, enjoying the breeze; it received over 700 gushing comments from fans. The message seems clear: If Liam ever needs a dog-walker, he’ll be able to get a lot of volunteers.

The streaming giant has released customer data showing fascinating trends among viewers of hits like Breaking Bad, Bates Motel, How I Met Your Mother, and others.

For other shows, the bar is higher. Viewers of The Blacklist and How I Met Your Mother needed a whole seven and eight episodes, respectively, to get hooked.

The data was compiled from viewers across countries in North America and Europe, as well as Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand. The cumulative data indicates that viewers are rarely if ever hooked after just the first episode—which makes a strong argument in favor of Netflix's decision to release its content in entire series installments.

Head of Content Ted Sarandos said as much in the company's press release. "[I]n our research of more than 20 shows across 16 markets, we found that no one was ever hooked on the pilot. This gives us confidence that giving our members all episodes at once is more aligned with how fans are made."

Maybe the turning point at which you got hooked on your favorite show was lower or higher than the average viewing time of four episodes. But even so, Netflix is paying attention—and using your addiction to help craft its entertainment strategies for the future.

Photo via Netflix

With Netflix and Amazon Prime and Hulu and HBO Now all at our fingertips, it can be impossible to keep track of what to watch or when it’s available.

Here’s the update for what’s coming soon to Amazon Prime and Hulu in the coming month. (Note: You’ll find Netflix’s own coming-soon list over here, as well as our curated picks over here.)

October 

Amazon

Oct. 1

The Other Son

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 

Someone Like You

John Carpenter's Vampires

Max Dugan Returns

Nell

The Impostors

The Fly

Light It Up

March of the Penguins

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

The Secret Garden

Astro Boy

Chicago P.D. Season 3

Jurassic World 

Oct. 2

Blacklist Season 3

Dr. Ken Season 1

Sleepy Hollow Season 3

Bones Season 11

Oct. 5

Family Takeover Season 1

Bar Rescue Season 6

Oct. 6

American Horror Story: Freak Show 

Ardor 

Tremors 5: Bloodline 

Cartel Land

Testament of Youth

Pixels 

Oct. 7

Alpha Omega 2

Alpha Omega 3

The Flash Season 2

iZombie Season 2

Oct. 8

American Horror Story: Hotel 

Couples Therapy Season 6

Arrow Season 4

Supernatural Season 11

Oct. 9

Red Oaks

Ridiculousness Season 11

Colony Season 1

The Vampire Diaries Season 7

The Originals Season 3

Final Girls 

Oct. 10

Undateable Season 3

Oct. 12

The Walking Dead Season 6

Oct. 13

Fargo Season 2

Oct. 14

Chicago Fire Season 4

Bark Ranger 

Oct. 16

Nathan For You Season 3

Oct. 17

Truth Be Told Season 1

Oct. 19

Penny Dreadful Season 2

Oct. 20

The Vatican Tapes

Terminator Genisys 

Oct. 21

Sweat, Inc. Season 1

Oct. 22 

First Kiss Season 1

Oct. 23

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

While We're Young 

Oct. 27

Black Ink Chicago Season 1

Supergirl Season 1

Oct. 28

Curious George Season 9

Oct. 29

Tom at the Farm 

Oct. 30

Danny Collins 

Oct. 31

Grimm Season 6

Hulu

Oct. 1

Chicago P.D.: Season 3 Premiere (NBC)

Alaska: The Last Frontier: Complete Season 4 (Discovery)

Cake Boss: Next Great Baker: Complete Seasons 2 - 4 (TLC)

Deadly Women: Complete Season 8 (ID)

Fast N’ Loud: Complete Season 6 (Discovery)

Gator Boys: Complete Season 6 (Animal Planet)

Hoarding: Buried Alive: Complete Season 8 (TLC)

How Do They Do It?: Complete Seasons 7 & 8 (Science)

Leah Remini: It’s All Relative: Complete Season 1 (TLC)

Long Island Medium: Complete Season 7 (TLC)

My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding: Complete Season 3 (TLC)

My Five Wives: Complete Season 1 (TLC)

My Strange Addiction: Complete Season 5 (TLC)

MythBusters: Complete Season 16 (Discovery)

Say Yes to the Dress: Complete Season 12 (TLC)

Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta: Complete Seasons 5 & 7 (TLC)

Say Yes to the Dress: Randy Knows Best: Complete Season 3 (TLC)

Street Outlaws: Complete Season 3 (Discovery)

Tanked: Complete Seasons 7 & 8 (Animal Planet)

Toddlers & Tiaras: Complete Seasons 7 & 8 (TLC)

Who Do You Think You Are?: Complete Season 5 (TLC)

Yukon Men: Complete Season 4 (Discovery)

3 Geezers! (2013)

666: The Beast (2015)

A Touch of Unseen (2014)

Addicted (2014)

All Is Lost (2013)

Altergeist (2014)

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)

Avenged (2013)

Bandits (2001) (*Showtime)

Ben Stiller’s Comedy Roundtable #2 (2013)

Billy Mize & The Bakersfield Sound (2014)

Blair Witch Project, The (1999)

Blood Simple (1985)

Blue Chips (1994)

Cantinflas (2014)

Carrie (2013)

Casa Amor: Exclusive for Ladies (2015)

Cat's Meow, The (2001) (*Showtime)

Cesar Chavez (2014)

Come Out and Play (2013)

Craig Ferguson: Does This Need To Be Said? (2011)

Dear White People (2014)

Defiance (2008)

Demons (2015)

Devil's Rejects, The (2005) (*Showtime)

Donovan's Echo (2011) (*Showtime)

Doomsday Book (2012)

Dragonheart (1996) (*Showtime)

Dukale's Dream (2015)

Expendables 3, The (2014)

Fightville (2011)

Fish Tank (2009) (*Showtime)

Flashdance (1983)

Frankenstein vs. The Mummy (2015)

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

Girl Most Likely (2013)

GLOW (2015)

Hannah And Her Sisters (1986)

Hard Ride to Hell (2010)

Harsh Times (2005) (*Showtime)

Hercules (2014)

Hooked Up (2013)

Hugo (2011)

Hunger Games, The: Catching Fire (2013)

I Am I (2013)

I, Frankenstein (2014)

In A World… (2013)

Infernal (2015)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2013)

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013)

Jenny McCarthy’s Dirty, Sexy, Funny (2014)

Jim Breuer: And Laughter for All (2013)

Jim Breuer: Comic Frenzy (2015)

Jim Jefferies: Fully Functional (2012)

Jim Norton: American Degenerate (2013)

Jim Norton: Contextually Inadequate (2015)

Joe (2014)

Justin Beiber: Never Say Never (2011)

Katy Perry: Prismatic World Tour (2014)

Kids for Cash (2013)

La Repetition (2001)

Labor Day (2013)

Last Play at Shea (2010)

Lewis Black: Old Yeller – Live at the Borgata (2014)

Liar’s Autobiography, A: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman (2011)

Lisa Lampanelli: Back to the Drawing Board (2015)

Little Jerusalem (2005)

Love or Whatever (2012)

Lunarcy! (2012)

Men, Women & Children (2014)

Miles To Go (2012)

Monkey Shines: An Experiment In Fear (1988)

Most Wanted Man, A (2014)

Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

Nebraska (2013)

Noah (2014)

Pain & Gain (2013)

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2013)

Patton Oswalt: Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time (2014)

P!nk: The Truth About Love Tour (2013)

Please Be Normal (2014)

Poltergeist of Borley Forest (2013)

Primal Fear (1996)

Private Parts (1997)

Psycho Beach Party (2000)

Pulp Fiction (1994) (*Showtime)

Rabbit Hole (2010)

Rise of the Footsoldier (2007) (*Showtime)

Riviera (2005)

Robocop (2014)    

Run, Hide, Die (2012)

Russell Brand: Messiah Complex (2014)

Serendipity (2001) (*Showtime)

Shelter (2015)

Skeleton Twins, The (2014)

Skipped Parts (2000) (*Showtime)

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)

Swimming Upstream (2003) (*Showtime)

Tales from the Hood (1995) (*Showtime)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

The Breakup Girl (2015)

The Butterfly Tattoo (2009)

The Cutting Room (2015)

The House at the End of Time (2013)

The Inkwell (1994) (*Showtime)

The Innkeepers (2011)

The Last Keepers (2013)

The Program (2015) (*Showtime)

The Quitter (2014)

The Ravine of Goodbye (2013)

The Story of Luke (2012)

They Came Together (2014)

Tom Papa: Freaked Out (2013)

Tony: London Serial Killer (2009) (*Showtime)

Transformers: Age Of Extinction (2014)

Vanish (2015)

Weapons (2007) (*Showtime)

Who Bombed Judi Bari? (2012)

William Shatner’s Get a Life (2012)

Wolf Of Wall Street, The (2013)

World War Z (2013)

You're Next (2013)

Young Hunters: The Beast of Bevendean (2015)

Oct. 2

Bones: Season 11 Premiere (FOX)

Sleepy Hollow: Season 3 Premiere (FOX)

Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (*Showtime)

I Am Giant: Victor Cruz (2015) (*Showtime)

Oct. 4

Saturday Night Live: Season 41 Premiere (NBC)

The Good Wife: Complete Season 6 (CBS)

The Affair: Season 2 Premiere, Episodes 201 & 202 (*Showtime)

Homeland: Season 5 Premiere (*Showtime)

Oct. 5

The Lovers (2015) (*Showtime)

Oct. 6

American Horror Story: Freak Show: Complete Season 4 (FX)

The Eric Andre Show: Complete Season 3 (Adult Swim)

Oct. 7

Casual: Series Premiere (Hulu Original)

The Flash: Season 2 Premiere (CW)

iZombie: Season 2 Premiere (CW)

Oct. 8

Arrow: Season 4 Premiere (CW)

Supernatural: Season 11 Premiere (CW)

Oct. 9

The Vampire Diaries: Season 7 Premiere (CW)

The Originals: Season 3 Premiere (CW)

Oct. 10

Undateable: Season 3 Premiere (NBC)

Reign: Season 3 Premiere (CW)

Prophet's Prey (2015) (*Showtime)

Oct. 12

America’s Funniest Home Videos: Season 26 Premiere (ABC)

Doc McStuffins: Complete Season 2 (Disney Junior)

Oct. 13

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Series Premiere (CW)

Jane the Virgin: Season 2 Premiere (CW)

Oct. 14

Chicago Fire: Season 4 Premiere (NBC)

The Jim Gaffigan Show: Season 1 Finale (TV Land)

Oct. 17

Truth Be Told: Series Premiere (NBC)

Camp X-Ray (2014) (*Showtime)

Oct. 18

Basketball Wives LA: Season 4 Finale (VH1)

Oct. 23

Hunger Games, The: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank (2014) (*Showtime)

Oct. 25

American Dream / American Knightmare (2015) (*Showtime)

Oct. 28

Wicked City: Series Premiere (ABC)

Oct. 30

Why Horror? (2014) (*Showtime)

Oct. 31

Grimm: Season 4 Premiere (NBC)

September

Amazon

Sept. 1

Little Giants

Maya the Bee

Private Parts

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows

The Blair Witch Project

Desperately Seeking Susan

Hannah and Her Sisters

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Lord of Illusions

Popeye

The Crucible (1996)

The Swan Princess (1994)

Hannibal Rising (2007)

Anywhere But Here

Sept. 3

Stuart Little

Sept. 4

Dear White People

Hand of God (season 1)

Sept. 5

Gabriel

Extreme Movie

Deli Man

I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story

Sept. 10

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

Sept. 12

Men, Women & Children

Sept. 16

A Smile Like Yours

Sept. 18

From Prada to Nada

Sept. 21

Halloween (2007)

Serendipity

Sept. 30

Grimm (season 4)

Hulu

Sept. 1

Elementary: Complete Seasons 1 – 3 (CBS)

The League: Complete Season 6 (FX)

Lovesick (2014) *

The Hunters (2013) *

Tooken (2015) *

Sept. 2

Willow Creek (2013) *

Sept. 3

Celebrity Wife Swap: Season 4 Finale (ABC)

Alien Rising (2015)

All The Wrong Reasons (2014)

American Ghost Hunter (2015)

American Made Movie (2013)

Amigo Undead (2015)

Antidote (2014)

Backwater (2013)

Black Widow (2008)

Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity (2014)

Brush With Danger (2014)

Buddy Hutchins (2015)

Camembert Rose (2009)

Coral Reef Adventure (2003)

Cut! (2014)

Demons (1985)

Digging to China (1997)

Doppelganger (2003)

Freebird: The Movie (1996)

Home Is Where the Heart Is (2014)

Hunted (2013)

Hurricane on the Bayou (2006)

Kane's Kitchen (2015)

Lord Montagu (2015)

Love Triangle (2013)

Muffin Top (2014)

Mysteries of Angels and Demons (2015)

Neil Simon's London Suite (1996)

Nfinity Champions League Volume 2 (2015)

Please Please Me! (Fais Moi Plaisir) (2009)

Rhymes with Banana (2012)

Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90) (2014)

Such Good People (2014)

Sunflower (2006)

That Guy Dick Miller (2014)

The 10 Year Plan (2014)

The Badger Game (2014)

The Last Keepers (2013)

The Whistle Blower (2014)

Treehouse (2014)

Vincent (1981)

Wes Craven Presents Don’t Look Down (1998)

Zero Tolerance (2014)

Sept. 4

Mistresses: Season 3 Finale (ABC)

Rookie Blue: Season 6 Finale (ABC)

Ping Pong: The Animation (Dubbed): Complete Season 1

Soul Eater Not! (Dubbed): Complete Season 1

Hamatora the Animation (Subtitled): Complete Season 1

Sept. 5

St. Vincent (2014) *

Sept. 8

The Awesomes: Season 3 Premiere 

Echoes of War (2015) *

Sept. 9

Extreme Weight Loss: Season 5 Finale (ABC)

Zero Punctuation: Season 9 Premiere (Defy)

Sept. 11

Beauty & the Beast: Season 3 Finale (CW)

BlazBlue: Alter Memory (Dubbed): Complete Season 1

The World Is Still Beautiful (Subtitled): Complete Season 1

CrackerJack (2013)

Sept. 14

Teen Wolf: Season 5 Finale (MTV)

La Banda: Series Premiere (Univision)

A Season with Notre Dame Football: Series Premiere *

Sept. 15

The Mindy Project: Season 4 Premiere 

Dancing with the Stars: Season 21 Premiere (ABC)

Another Period: Season 1 Finale (Comedy Central)

Freedom (2014) *

Sept. 16

Difficult People: Season 1 Finale

Why? With Hannibal Buress: Season 1 Finale (Comedy Central)

Best Time Ever With Neil Patrick Harris: Series Premiere (NBC)

Sept. 17

South Park: Season 19 Premiere (Comedy Central)

Sept. 18

Camp X-Ray (2014) *

Noragami (Dubbed): Complete Season 1

Last Hours in Suburbia (2012)

Sept. 20

Bar Rescue: Season 4 Finale (Spike)

Sept. 21

Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta: Season 4 Finale (VH1)

Sept. 22

Castle: Season 8 Premiere (ABC)

Gotham: Season 2 Premiere (FOX)

Minority Report: Series Premiere (FOX)

Scream: Season 1 Finale (MTV)

The Voice: Season 9 Premiere (NBC)

Blindspot: Series Premiere (NBC)

Sept. 23

Dancing with the Stars: Results: Season 21 Premiere (ABC)

Fresh off the Boat: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

The Muppets: Series Premiere (ABC)

Scream Queens: Series Premiere (FOX)

Sept. 24

Black-ish: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

Modern Family: Season 7 Premiere (ABC)

Nashville: Season 4 Premiere (ABC)

The Goldbergs: Season 3 Premiere (ABC)

The Middle: Season 7 Premiere (ABC)

Empire: Season 2 Premiere (FOX)

Rosewood: Series Premiere (FOX)

Law and Order: SVU: Season 17 Premiere (NBC)

The Mysteries of Laura: Season 2 Premiere (NBC)

A Wicked Offer: Season 1 Finale (CW)

Lip Sync Battle: Season 1 Finale (Spike)

Sept. 25

Grey's Anatomy: Season 12 Premiere (ABC)

Hot to Get Away with Murder: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

Scandal: Season 5 Premiere (ABC)

Heroes Reborn: Series Premiere (NBC)

The Player: Series Premiere (NBC)

Sept. 26

Last Man Standing: Season 5 Premiere (ABC)

Shark Tank: Season 7 Premiere (ABC)

Sept. 28

Blood & Oil: Series Premiere (ABC)

Once Upon a Time: Season 5 Premiere (ABC)

Quantico: Series Premiere (ABC)

Bob's Burgers: Season 6 Premiere (FOX)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 3 Premiere (FOX)

Family Guy: Season 14 Premiere (FOX)

The Last Man on Earth: Season 2 Premiere (FOX)

The Simpsons: Season 27 Premiere (FOX)

Sept. 30

Beyond the Tank: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD: Season 3 Premiere (ABC)

Grandfathered: Series Premiere (FOX)

The Grinder: Series Premiere (FOX)

Candidly Nicole: Season 2 Finale (VH1)

August

The sweat, the chafing, the heat. Ack. August is the perfect time to settle in with a few of TV’s best curmudgeons. 

Hulu blesses us with the debut of original series Difficult People (Aug. 5), the new comedy starring Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner; the return of the Hotwives franchise (Aug. 18); and Mr. Mom (Aug. 1).  

Hulu

Aug. 1

8 Heads in a Duffle Bag

Another Woman 

A Bridge Too Far 

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex 

Mr. Mom 

Aug. 2

Basketball Wives LA: Season 4 premiere 

Aug. 4

Bachelor in Paradise: Season 2 premiere 

Aug. 5

Difficult People: Series premiere 

Aug. 6

Mr. Robinson: Series premiere 

A Wicked Offer: Series premiere 

America’s Next Top Model: Season 22 premiere 

Job or No Job: Series Premiere 

FÉMININ/FÉMININ: Season 1 

2Survive 

52 Tuesdays 

American Ghost Hunter 

Angel, Alien and UFO Encounters from Another Dimension 

Anomaly 

Another Kind 

Antiviral 

Betelnut Beauty 

Bicycle 

Blood and High Heels 

Dangerous Affairs 

Dark Tarot 

Eye for an Eye 

Ferocious Planet 

Flash Gordon 

Freedom 

From Dust 

Fun Size Horror 

Hello! How Are You? 

Iceland Aurora 

Kandote 

Ladies of the House 

Moses: Man of God 

My Amityville Horror 

Nero: The Obscure Face of Power 

Once More With Feeling 

Peace After Marriage 

Real Fear: The Truth Behind the Movies 

Sharpshooter 

Still 

Ten Nights of Dreams 

The Architect 

The Big Fix 

The Mother Grain 

The Party Is Over 

The Poseidon Adventure 

Two Guys 

Walking Man 

We Are Young 

Xtra Credit 

Aug. 7

The Next Step: Season 2

Aug. 8

Doctor Who: Season 8 

Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories: Season 1 

Aug. 10

You’re the Worst: Season 1

Aug. 12

Catfish: Season 4 finale

The Next Step Reality: NYC: Series premiere 

Startup U: Season 2 premiere

Aug. 13

Kevin From Work: Series premiere 

Errors of the Human Body 

Aug. 14

Nobunagun: Season 1

Wanna Be the Strongest in the World!: Season 1 

Aug. 18

Hotwives of Las Vegas: Season 2 premiere 

Aug. 20

Itakiss: Season 1 

Aug. 21

Mr. Pickles: Season 1 

Gallagher: Totally New

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Season 1 

Aug. 25

Switched at Birth: Season 4 premiere 

Aug. 27

Hot Package: Season 2 

Aug. 28

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 15 

Kevin Hart Presents: Keith Robinson—Back of the Bus Funny 

Amazon Prime 

Aug. 1

Olympus: Season 1 

The Patriot

The Longest Day

Unforgiven

Aug. 4 

Erased 

Aug. 6 

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Seasons 1-8

My Best Friend’s Wedding

In the Line of Fire

Aug. 7

A Most Violent Year

Aug. 12

Gett: Trial of Viviane Amsalen 

Aug. 15

If I Stay 

Aug. 16

Misery Loves Comedy 

Aug. 20

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl 

Aug. 22

Timbuktu

Aug. 23

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter 

Aug. 28

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 

Amazon Instant

Aug. 1

The Descendants 

Aug. 3

The Killing: Season 4

Strike Back: Season 3

The Knick: Season 1

Aug. 4

Teen Titans Go!: Season 3

A La Mala

Alpha & Omega: Family Vacation

Little Boy 

The Casual Vacancy

Aug. 7

Dark Places 

The Runner

The Amazing World of Gumball: Season 7

Aug. 10

Episodes: Season 4

Aug. 11

Where Hopes Grows

Lalaloopsy: Band Together 

The Hunting Ground

Mad Max: Fury Road

Lego DC Super Heroes: Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom!

Poltergeist Activity

72 Hours

Aug. 14

Documentary Now!

Fort Tilden 

Cop Car

People, Places, Things

Aug. 17

Homeland: Season 4

Aug. 18

Vendetta

Skin Trade

Kantemir

The Love Letter

Aug. 19

Hack My Life: Season 2

Aug. 20

Six Degrees of Everything: Season 1

Aug. 25

The Age of Adaline 

Iris

Queen & Country

Aug. 26 

Public Morals: Season 1

Aug. 28

Zipper

Aug. 31

House of Cards: Season 3

* Hulu titles with an asterisk are only available with the additional Showtime premium subscription.

Screengrab via Hulu

Vanity Fair posted an exclusive interview with rap superstar Kanye West on Thursday. This is the first time he’s touched on his highly publicized show at New York Fashion Week and since announcing his upcoming presidential run (in five years). 

As with any time West speaks, there are some potable quotables.

He doesn’t give away much in terms of his presidential run, but, to be fair, it’s still early. “The only concrete plan is that I plan to use concrete,” he says.

He does, on the other hand, appear to endorse current Republican candidate Ben Carson—while implying that Carson ducked his phone calls. Meanwhile, he also makes some legitimate points about the primary process of presidential elections:

As soon as I heard [Ben] Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy. And I think all the people running right now have something that each of the others needs. But the idea of this separation and this gladiator battle takes away from the main focus that the world needs help and the world needs all the people in a position of power or influence to come together.

At the same time, while talking about the fashion world accepting him, he conveys what sounds like the skeleton of his own presidential platform:

Yeah, well, eventually I want the whole world to accept me and I want the whole world to accept each other. My vision of life is that we have all of the information to live in a better world, but we’re always holding information back... In general the world is stingy with information. Information is the most important thing we have. Anytime I’ve ever had someone who intentionally held information from me in order to either control or manipulate the situation, be in charge of it in a certain way, that is the greatest travesty. I’d rather someone be hateful. It’s like being a fucking thief, you’re stealing information. It’s like when we go and we launch yeezy.supply, taking back the data is so important. And even musicians, for so long we were held back from our data. Meaning the record labels could have the data, but the musicians couldn’t have the data. This is the new world. The Internet’s like the Wild, Wild West. If you have your data, you have everything.

On the whole he mostly nerds out about fashion and its history. He also relates the way he looks at the functionality and colors of clothes to Legos and Play-Doh. But every time West talks about his daughter, it’s incredibly heartfelt, like when he says, “I’m just simply an artist trying to express myself, trying to finish my sentences just like my daughter can.”

At one point an unnamed, recent Jamaican immigrant interrupts to discuss baby presents. It goes all over the place. West compares the Internet to the Wild West. He posits the philosophy, “I think sweatshirts are the way of the future.” He gives some interesting thoughts on how the public views him and his family as adopted children and he talks about race like everyone is just a color card on the wall of a Sherwin-Williams: “It was only colors of human beings and the way these palettes of people work together and really just stressing the importance of color.”

Perhaps most importantly, however, he also talks about his upcoming album, Swish. Unfortunately he hints at new music being a ways away:

That song I played has been a year and a half in the making and it may be still a year from being complete. But it was to let people get a glimpse at the painting.

I know we’re here to talk about the fashion, Vanity Fair, but people are just a little bit interested in the album. It could be another year?

I’m not sure. I’m not worried about the years. I’m worried about the life and the body of work that I can put out while I’m breathing.

Who has time to make music when you're trying to break into Beltway politics?

H/T Vanity Fair | Illustration by Max Fleishman

Pope Francis has arrived in New York, and while some residents see this as a traffic nightmare, merchandisers see an opportunity.

Stores are celebrating the once-in-a-lifetime occasion by creating and selling as much Francis merchandise as possible. You can easily buy shirts, medallions, and hats marking his visit. But that's not all. As Stephen Colbert showed his Late Show audience on Thursday night, there's also a life-size cardboard cutout of Francis, pizza with his face on it, and a “postcard-sized tray of fine porcelain with real gold rim” featuring one of Francis' tweets.

No, we're not making this up.